Zika is a word in an African language (Luganda) that means “Overgrown”. It was the name given to a small forest in Uganda. A virus that was first recognized in the Zika Forest in 1947 was given the name of the forest and is called, the “Zika Virus”

Florida Department of Health officials report five confirmed cases of whooping cough in Broward County this year; four of them within the past few of weeks. The latest cases include three adolescents and an infant.

The measles virus is spread through the air by breathing, coughing or sneezing, and it is probably the most highly contagious infectious disease in humans. In fact, it’s possible for someone who is contagious to sneeze or cough inside a room, leave, and two hours later for someone else to enter that room and become infected.

We may be in for a nasty flu season, and getting a flu shot may help, but not as much as was hoped. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is warning that this year’s flu vaccine is less effective because among the flu viruses circulating this season, the most commonly detected virus has mutated.

Chagas is a devastating disease that can cause serious heart damage, even death. Once considered localized to Latin America, where it is endemic, the Centers for Disease Control now estimates 300,000 cases in the United States; however, experts think the numbers are probably much higher, and they warn of a potential public health threat to Americans.

Florida, with its sunny beaches and swimming pools, loses more children under age five to drowning than any other state, but drowning is a worldwide concern. On November 14, the World Health Organization posted its first Global report on drowning. It estimates that drowning kills 372,000 people each year and is among the top causes of death for children and young people around the world.

So far Florida has been spared. We are only one of seven states not yet affected by the deadly countrywide enterovirus outbreak. From mid-August to October 6, 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or state public health laboratories have confirmed 594 cases from 43 states and the District of Columbia, including four deaths.

Health officials have confirmed the first locally acquired case of dengue fever in Miami-Dade County. They say the 50-year-old woman was first diagnosed based on symptoms, and subsequent laboratory tests confirmed she had dengue. The woman has since fully recovered, but dengue can be fatal, even to otherwise young healthy people.

It is already the worst Ebola outbreak in history and it is growing. As of July 6, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports 844 cases, including 518 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. We have not seen this many casualties since this deadly virus was first recognized in 1976.

An outbreak of whooping cough in California has reached "epidemic proportions." The California state public health department reports nearly 3,500 cases including one death in 2014, with more than 800 cases reported in the past two weeks alone!

Nearly 300 cases and climbing! That's the word from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which says we've seen more cases of measles so far this year than in the first five months of any year since 1994.

The Florida Department of Health says two South Florida women are among three cases of Chikungunya fever reported in Florida. The women, from Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, and a third woman from Hillsborough County had recently traveled to the Caribbean where they acquired the infection.

2014 is poised to become the worst year for measles in the U.S. since 1996. As of May 9, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has registered 187 reported cases of measles nationwide, which is close to last year's total of 189.

Health officials say a new and deadly respiratory virus, from the Middle East has turned up for the first time in the U.S. The virus, called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), causes a terrible pneumonia. The early symptoms are fever, cough that produces secretions, and shortness of breath.